Roadrunner (Advanced Reading Copy/ARC)

The bold new novel from the award-winning author of Nappily Ever After, Roadrunner tells an unforgettable story of love, lies, searching, and redemption that will keep you guessing till the last page.

For Dell Fletcher, life isn’t complicated. He is the Roadrunner, a major-league baseball star who seems to have it all. He’s married to his college sweetheart, Leah, and they have two children and a dream home in Los Angeles. But an injury has sidelined his hot career and prescription medication and depression are pulling him into a downward spiral of self-pity and loneliness, leaving Leah feeling emotionally distanced and sad. Her growing frustration ends in an ultimatum: “Get help, or get out.” Their fighting escalates, and one night Dell commits an act of violence that changes the course of their lives forever.

Angel Lopez, the cop who arrests Dell, decides to take the law into his own hands. Determined to teach the famous athlete a lesson, he drives Dell to the worst part of town and tells him to get out of the car. The men struggle and the car crashes. When Angel comes to, Dell is gone. No one knows if he’s dead or alive.

Leah is grateful when a guilt-stricken Angel offers to chase the media away from her home and help out around the house, “just until Dell comes home.” She and her family grow to trust him, and Angel falls in love with the Roadrunner’s lovely, grieving wife. Leah still prays for a miracle, but she can’t deny her attraction to Angel, a man who may hold Dell’s fate in his hands. Will Dell find his way home? Will Angel replace him? And what really happened the dark night the Roadrunner disappeared?

TRISHA R. THOMAS is the author of the bestselling Nappily Ever After, a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction and a Gold Pen Awards nominee for Best New Author and Best Mainstream Fiction. Her home is in the Northwest, as is the greatest team in the American League. GO MARINERS!